Dr. Seuss' real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. But at times throughout his career, he used several other pen names, including Dr. Theophrastus Seuss, Theo LeSieg and Rosetta Stone.

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Seuss also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns and as a political cartoonist for a New York newspaper. He also worked in the animation department for the U.S. Army during World War II and wrote a film that won an Academy Award for documentary feature.

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Seuss first started using a pen name at Dartmouth College after he was caught hosting a drinking party. The dean forced him to resign from all of his extracurricular activities. To keep writing, he started using the name Seuss, which was his mother's maiden name.

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Seuss' advertising for Flit, a bug spray, became part of popular culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Comedians Jack Benny and Fred Allen used his catchphrase -- "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" -- as a punchline.

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According to his own accounts, his first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," was rejected by between 20 and 43 publishers. A chance encounter with an old college classmate led to the book's ultimate publication.

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Dr. Seuss wrote a fantasy/musical film that was released in 1953 called "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." It was a critical and financial failure and he never attempted another feature film.

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In the 1950s, an executive at Houghton Mifflin challenged Seuss to write a book using only 250 words that he thought were important for first-graders to know. Seuss completed "The Cat in the Hat" nine months later using 236 of the words given to him.

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A 14-year-old Seuss met President Theodore Roosevelt as a Boy Scout who sold war bonds. But Roosevelt was not given enough medals for the scouts, leaving Seuss without one. The president bellowed "What's this little boy doing here?" Seuss dreaded public appearances for the rest of his life.

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Seuss added the "Dr." to his pen name because his father had always wanted him to be a physician.

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Though he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Seuss had no children of his own. To this, he would say, "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."

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Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

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Seuss' figures in his drawings are often rounded and droopy. Almost all of the buildings and machinery he drew were devoid of straight lines, even when he was showing real objects. For instance, a crane or a steam calliope would both be droopy, while they would have straight lines in real life.